[ken6217]

You should see my black Harley. I stopped even trying to keep it clean.

 

[Yifang]

I will say, silver electronics, just like cars, always hide dust, whereas black always looks dirty.

It really do be like that...

Especially with my OCD who once sent my Elites back for cosmetic replacements that cost $600 USD...

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I was very close to buying a Bliss KTE before pulling the trigger on the Little Silver Fox. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of that amp with your Elite @Yifang.

I’m going to do some head-to-head comparisons between the LSF and my Cayin iHA-6 this week. I want to make sure I can make out the improvements before I commit to a much more expensive solid-state amp.

 

[Yifang]

I was very close to buying a Bliss KTE before pulling the trigger on the Little Silver Fox. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of that amp with your Elite @Yifang.

I’m going to do some head-to-head comparisons between the LSF and my Cayin iHA-6 this week. I want to make sure I can make out the improvements before I commit to a much more expensive solid-state amp.

I will definitely be reporting back as soon as I can try a Bliss. Needless to say I will put it through extensive testing the same way I did for Silver Fox here.

Unfortunately there aren't many Bliss around in Australia, and the only demo being offered by the local retailer involves paying a full retail price deposit which I cannot do without selling my Silver Fox off anyway. It is quite unfortunate the full retail price here is also heavily marked up to be equivalent of 4400 USD for Bliss KTE.

Cayin iHA-6 is a great amplifier and was my first as well, before the Soloist 3X GT and now the Silver Fox. Needless to say it isn't on the level these other ones I am mentioning are, but that's why its an upgrade pathway. I still think the iHA-6 is easily a top contender at a tier below the 3X GT though.

Just praying to find someone that will take the Silver Fox soon because I have found a deal on Bliss (not from Australia) and hopefully it doesn't sell off to someone else before me

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I just can tell what I hear with my ears. Hard to say if dynamics is reduced but in my high revealing chain I hear more details with low impedance 1 - and everything is more refined. Don´t know, but maybe the reason is some kind of impedance match with the Elites.

I’m testing out Low Impedance 1/Parallel since you’re preferring that combination with your Elite. I assume you did some comparisons between High Impedance and Low Impedance 1 in Parallel mode and came out preferring Low Impedance 1. I didn’t hear any noise floor in High Impedance, so it didn’t cross my mind to try any of the Low Impedance modes. I try to keep an open mind, so I’ll definitely give this combination a fair shot.

 

[TheMiddleSky]

Anyone here ever compared Silver Fox with Feliks Envy? I understand all the differences, included the price gap, but still curious anyway haha

 

[project86]

Anyone here ever compared Silver Fox with Feliks Envy? I understand all the differences, included the price gap, but still curious anyway haha

Not that I've heard of thus far. Envy is pretty rare due to the price, and Silver Fox is pretty rare due to being so new... so finding a person that has used both is unlikely. But it will happen sooner or later.

 

[Yifang]

Does anyone have experience in using an RCA to XLR adapter like the one below? If I can just input the Qutest RCA into the XLR of the Silver Fox perhaps that could make parallel a viable option to have no noise floor.

Just wanted to confirm this adapter works wonders. Definitely does the job in lowering the noise floor and functions just like it would with XLR input!

If any Qutest owners plan on picking up one of these amps, get an adapter like this. The pairing is currently my number 1, I can only imagine what a TT2 would do for it.

On a side note, I have placed an order on Bliss and will be comparing other pairings once it arrives to see if anything can beat the Qutest + Silver Fox pairing.

 

[Yifang]

Back at it again with another long update.
Did another test this time... with the monstrous Hifiman Susvara itself!

First of all, I can guarantee you there is no audible noise floor on any setting any mode... There would be something severely wrong if there was noise floor after all right?

Second, the Silver Fox here does power the Susvara all the way up and still has some room left even with my -7dB preamp on Equalizer to implement a bass shelf.

Thirdly, this is the best I've personally ever heard Susvara being powered, compared to the Soloist 3X GT, iFi iCan Pro Signature, and Bryston BHA-1. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with other amps to comment on.

Unfortunately though, this is still not Susvara properly driven as described by someone who has heard the Susvara properly powered by speaker amps. If this still isn't the final form, what does the final form have to sound like? Damn...

iFi iEMatch works in removing the noise floor on the High Impedance setting so that is the way to go for those wanting to use IEMs on the Silver Fox. While the regular 3.5mm iEMatch works perfectly, note that the output impedance on the 4.4 version of the iEMatch is at <3.6 Ohm. Therefore, the chances of having impedance related issues still exists, such as frequency responses being alter. This will once again vary depending on the IEM itself but most likely still better than a 50 - 150 Ohm output impedance on the Low Impedance settings of the amp.

The amp truly sounds amazing when paired with my Qutest now and having heard both Susvara & Elites on it. Highly recommend everyone to give it a demo if possible.

In summary, use XLR inputs, relatively less sensitive headphones, and this amp will serve you magic.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I don't know if the noise floor has gone down with burn-in, but I can barely hear any noise with the Elite in BTL/High Impedance modes. Again, I'm using the XLR input and the 4-pin XLR headphone jack on the Little Silver Fox. I tried Low Impedance 1 mode in Parallel as @yellowblue prefers but couldn't really detect an advantage vs High Impedance mode. I just had to turn the volume knob up a bit.

One strange thing I noticed when using Low Impedance 1 mode was that the volume didn't change when switching between BTL and Parallel. In High Impedance mode, the volume definitely drops when switching from BTL to Parallel. I'm not sure how the 50-ohm resistor is interacting with the different output modes, but I found this behavior at least a little curious. Maybe @cengrand can explain what's going on.

 

[ken6217]

Back at it again with another long update.
Did another test this time... with the monstrous Hifiman Susvara itself!



First of all, I can guarantee you there is no audible noise floor on any setting any mode... There would be something severely wrong if there was noise floor after all right?

Second, the Silver Fox here does power the Susvara all the way up and still has some room left even with my -7dB preamp on Equalizer to implement a bass shelf.

Thirdly, this is the best I've personally ever heard Susvara being powered, compared to the Soloist 3X GT, iFi iCan Pro Signature, and Bryston BHA-1. Unfortunately, I don't have much experience with other amps to comment on.

Unfortunately though, this is still not Susvara properly driven as described by someone who has heard the Susvara properly powered by speaker amps. If this still isn't the final form, what does the final form have to sound like? Damn...

iFi iEMatch works in removing the noise floor on the High Impedance setting so that is the way to go for those wanting to use IEMs on the Silver Fox. While the regular 3.5mm iEMatch works perfectly, note that the output impedance on the 4.4 version of the iEMatch is at <3.6 Ohm. Therefore, the chances of having impedance related issues still exists, such as frequency responses being alter. This will once again vary depending on the IEM itself but most likely still better than a 50 - 150 Ohm output impedance on the Low Impedance settings of the amp.

The amp truly sounds amazing when paired with my Qutest now and having heard both Susvara & Elites on it. Highly recommend everyone to give it a demo if possible.

In summary, use XLR inputs, relatively less sensitive headphones, and this amp will serve you magic.

There is more to the system than just the amp. It’s rhe the sum of the parts. So there’s no way that your friend is going to be able to make an accurate opinion of how the Susvara sounds with the Ssilver Fox versus a speaker amp with all of the rest of the components being different. I can tell you the Qutest is definitely holding it back.

 

[project86]

There's always someone out there who says Susvara needs 1200W monoblocs to really come alive. I've tried quite a few speaker amps and my conclusion is that they really aren't the magic bullet some people make them out to be. Does the combo sometimes sound wonderful? Sure. But is it better than top tier, high power headphone amps like this? Imho no.

It also drives me crazy that people tend to lump "speaker amps" together as a monolithic product. Folks around here will argue about the tiniest differences between different variations of the same amplifier, but then also hold that "speaker amps=good". Despite speaker amps having extreme variability in everything from topology to output (even more so than headphone amplifiers imho).

 

[Yifang]

There is more to the system than just the amp. It’s rhe the sum of the parts. So there’s no way that your friend is going to be able to make an accurate opinion of how the Susvara sounds with the Ssilver Fox versus a speaker amp with all of the rest of the components being different. I can tell you the Qutest is definitely holding it back.

There's always someone out there who says Susvara needs 1200W monoblocs to really come alive. I've tried quite a few speaker amps and my conclusion is that they really aren't the magic bullet some people make them out to be. Does the combo sometimes sound wonderful? Sure. But is it better than top tier, high power headphone amps like this? Imho no.

It also drives me crazy that people tend to lump "speaker amps" together as a monolithic product. Folks around here will argue about the tiniest differences between different variations of the same amplifier, but then also hold that "speaker amps=good". Despite speaker amps having extreme variability in everything from topology to output (even more so than headphone amplifiers imho).

Always a Susvara supremacist out there somewhere! Every time I've ever mentioned I prefer my Elites to Susvara online somewhere, I get told I'm deaf and just haven't heard a properly powered Sus. Here I am still preferring Elites so...

On a side note Elise Audio also have the same opinion that Susvara isn't at full potential via Silver Fox, but nonetheless is still great.

 

[ken6217]

Always a Susvara supremacist out there somewhere! Every time I've ever mentioned I prefer my Elites to Susvara online somewhere, I get told I'm deaf and just haven't heard a properly powered Sus. Here I am still preferring Elites so...

On a side note Elise Audio also have the same opinion that Susvara isn't at full potential via Silver Fox, but nonetheless is still great.

Not everyone has to love the Susvara. For me personally, I don't get the hype. They are too soft sounding and lack bass. I use a Simaudio 600i V2 speaker amp as well as a CFA3 amp and I still did not care for the Susvara. If I was going to spend that much money I would go with a 1266 TC anyway. I'll bet the Silver Fox and the 1266 TC would be a good pairing.

 

[Yifang]

Not everyone has to love the Susvara. For me personally, I don't get the hype. They are too soft sounding and lack bass. I use a Simaudio 600i V2 speaker amp as well as a CFA3 amp and I still did not care for the Susvara. If I was going to spend that much money I would go with a 1266 TC anyway. I'll bet the Silver Fox and the 1266 TC would be a good pairing.

I'd have to agree here. Elites all the way! Hope to hear an Abyss at some point as I've heard stuff from pretty much all other high end offerings.